Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG Owners Lounge

I actually had gotten Momentus XT when I first got the laptop back in July. I just recently put an SSD in it and yes the speed is very addictive

I will try the thermal paste - I have arctic silver stuff sitting here anyway.

 

Nice to see that the UK finally got a unit with a 5650 (6550).

 

$100 gift card with purchase from amazon.

How much of a GPU boost is expected from the 6550 over the 5650?

 

5%

Bronsky

 

I'm thinking of picking up the 4820TG on Amazon, since the gift card is hard to turn down. However, I'm still a bit apprehensive about the build quality. Can owners enlighten me?

1) So, the heating issues were related to the i3? The i5 should be fine without a cooler if I keep it well ventilated? What if I use it on my lap?

2) I usually treat my laptops with care, but I do travel a bit, will the Acer be able to hold up without being scratched? Will I have to worry about a little pressure on the lid ruining the whole thing?

3) Straight out of the box, how long can I expect to wait before I can actually use the computer? Assuming I had to delete bloatware, update drivers, backup, etc.

4) How flimsy is the lid? The hinges, based on the pictures, seem very weak, is it likely to wear out with age?

5) With care, can I expect this laptop to last me at least 3-4 years?

6) Should I expect a price decrease within the next month, especially after Christmas? (this is assuming this thing doesn't sell out before then)

Thanks

 

Not much, eh? Haha I'm just looking for any reason to continue the laptop search...

 

1. Throttle issues were with I3. If it is unplugged and on intel graphics u can use it in your lap but be careful. All laptops on your lap can cause you to lose little soldiers.
2. Keep it in a case and it should be fine.
3. I would recommend a clean install. But you could just use it straight out of the box with bloat ware.
4. Seems fine to me. I have only had it for a few weeks.
5. I think so, thats my plan
6. It sells out allll the time and compared to other laptops in it's price range and performance it is cheap. I could be wrong but I expect the price to remain within $100 of where it is now across all sites.

 

1. Throttling is mostly related to the Core i3 and Core i7 in the 4820TG. I haven't seen the Core i5 throttle yet. Heat shouldn't be a problem on your lap if you aren't playing demanding games.

2. Almost every laptop scratches, it's mostly due to user error. Try not to apply pressure on the lid because it's extremely thin.

3. Probably an hour or two to get rid of all the bloatware and to install new updates.

4. The lid is basically a thin piece of aluminum. It can bend really easily if you forcefully try to bend it. The hinges seem to be stable so far. I've had this laptop since late June.

5. This laptop hasn't been out for more than 7 months in the U.S., so I can't really say it will last 3-4 years, but it should last a while with good care.

6) Most laptops per class will always be in the same price range, but will have better technology as time goes by. Don't expect major decreases in price for this specific laptop. The 4820TG is already cheap for the performance/portability/battery life it provides.

 

Cheers for the link buddy, I'm in the UK so I bought mine of eBay from a guy who shipped it from the US.
It arrived today! Looks like the 480m has a clock speed of 2.67Ghz. Anyone know any more about this chip?

 

It's just a higher clocked version of the Core i5-460M. There shouldn't be any major changes besides the clock speed.

 

Ah ok thats fine with me, didnt cost any more than the 460 ones!

 

Is it bad that I am still on all original drivers?

 

No, but you could get better performance off of newer drivers from acer without losing functionality.

 

I installed every updated driver except for the ATI drivers because i thought I read here there was a certain procedure to install them? Many of the drivers I tried to install stated that I had newer drivers on my computer already (I downloaded all of them from the acer site).

I read the first page of the post and it talks about booting into the BIOS and changing to descrete and then installing the drivers, but it seems that is for a different version than is available on acers site. Which drivers SHOULD I be installing for the video card? THe ones from Acers site and then still going through the procedure of booting to BIOS or can i just click the setup file and be good to go?

 

I followed those same instructions with the acer AMD drivers for the 3820tg on my 4820tg. The 3820tg AMD drivers are more up to date then the 4820TG for some reason but both work the same.

So I suggest you just do what I did cause its working for me.

 

Its in stock at amazon with a 100 credit if anyone is interested.

I think its today only too.

 

Solved my graphics issue.

Just realised none of my USB drives function at all down the right-hand side? The one on the left works fine, but the 3 on the right, not at all?
Any ideas?

 

In the 3820TG, the bank of USB ports is contained on its own card. There is a connection to it, much like a keyboard, touchpad or power switch connection. I would check that ribbon first if yor're comfortable taking the keyboard off.

Bronsky

 

I realize this may be in the thread, but since Bronsky is always so awesome about answering questions..
Is there a guide on here to show how to break this down and install new thermal paste? Is it just "pop the keyboard, all screws off the bottom, take off what's left of the top" and go from there?

 

There is a guide linked in this thread. I think it was a Chinese site. Maybe somebody will post the link. I have never taken the 4820TG apart but I have had my 3820TG apart a half-a-dozen times. You take the KB off, the bottom screws, the Ram, the HD, the Wifi out then the 7 or so screws holding the top half onto the motherboard. Move the WIFI antennae and disconnect about 6 or 7 plugs (speakers, mike, power switch, touchpad, etc). I don't know if you have to remove the USB board in the 4820TG but it just needs to be lifted on the inboard side first. Then, flip the board over and you will have access to the Fan and heat sinks. Remove them, change the CPU and repaste everything. Spread method is recommended for mobile arrandale CPUs. I have had great results with IC Diamond which I strongly recommend.

As a precaution, I like to keep the battery and the power adapter out of the unit whenever it is open. You never know when a plug or adapter can drop onto the motherboard and create a short.

Bronsky

 

Okay first of all i wud like to say a big thank u to aylafan and bronsky, they made me buy this laptop! lol. i made sure i read thru well b4 i spent ma 800 dols. Okay, so lemme just break things down a lil for some newbies (like im not one me self hehehe)
1. Format it as u get it right after u make ur recovery disc (just the driver disc wud do). This ups performance a whole lot
2. If u can get an SSD. one of the few bottlenecks of the computer, cud only get a WD 7200 but hey, im in nigeria hehehehe
3. Acer update does not work!!! lol! i hadda reformat my system today (over installed all the games ma dv5's overheating core2duo plus 9600GT combination cudnt handle and messed up ma registry lol) and actually found out there were so many updated drivers on d acer site which the software didnt inform me about!
4. Be careful with it. avnt dropped it yet or anything but u can tell its fragile, its no macbook 13 (an air mayb hehehe)
5. i am prepared to claim all ma waranty on any part i smell is disfunctional by d 11th month of ma purchase. this is to verify i have a 'new' computer after one year! lol, yes yes warranty works in africa hehehe!
6. Its a great machine.......get one if u need a computer, u wud be impressed.

O ya, ayla and bronsky, can i overclock ma processor? i have the M460 model at 2.53Ghz wud be nice to get to 2.8 Hehee

And ya, got the cooler master X-Lite. Its good for d laptop and its quite bang for buck too. think about it if u gonna be game in sub saharan africa heheheh.

Adios!

 

Well my 4820TG is on the way from amazon. I'm trying to sort out everything I need to do! Basically what kcatetra has laid out. I'll stick with the 5400 rpm drive for now, but I might put that $100 amazon credit towards a Momentus XT in the future.

So many things to plan! Benchmarks, prime95, etc. Should be a fun weekend. Gotta reread this thread....

 

Hi, can you please tell me what happened with your USB issue? I have exactly the same issue and it is really annoying :X
Thank in advance

 

Guys i have a problem. I've dropped mine and now i can't past to black "windows is starting" screen . I'm guessing it's a hardware problem. All i wanna ask is is it possible to replace all the parts in this notebook? My main concern is the motherboard

 

Does anyone know if Amazon is still offering the $100 credit? I hope I didn't miss it.

 

If you order from Amazon, can you let us know the specs when you get it? I'm wondering if they've received the upgraded hardware or not.

 

Do you hear a clicking noise from the hard drive? If you are getting to the bios screen it SHOULDNT be a motherboard issue. Do you have a spare computer you can put the 4820tg hard drive into to test.

 

A friend of mine just got one from amazon and it had a i5-460m

 

Yeah yeah i hear clicking noises i though it was coming from the motherboard. I can get to the bios screen ( if you mean the screen comes after we push the F2 right after the startup)

I'll take it to a service tomorrow, do you think the hdd is the problem? Hopefully it is sadly i can't try it it's 3:24 am here my roommate might be disturbed :/

 

I'm 99 percent sure its the hard drive.

Service, I say swap it out yourself. The hardest part of fixing this issue will probably be reloading windows. If you made a recovery disc you're golden.

Did it sound like this
YouTube - DIY: How to repair a clicking damaged hard drive

 

Hmm mine doesn't sound like that. It's kind a short long short periodic sound coming under the right middle of the keyboard. The sound stop after a minute or so and comes back again than comes BSOD and notebooks boots itself again it goes on and on.

Sorry for my bad english

 

The clicking will vary depending on the type of crash. I would not boot in windows anymore and stick your hard drive in another machine to recover as much information as possible. It's bound to completely fail soon enough.

 

Hey all, currently close to buying a laptop and after quite a while of researching I've narrowed it down to a Sager NP 5135 and this 4820tg. Both are pretty close to the same specs but this machine is about $100 cheaper which might as well be $1000 considering how poor I am. In other words, it makes a huge difference.

So, I understand these questions may have been asked plenty times so I apologize but I have not seen so many reviews on this.

To get to the point: I'm actually looking for this to replace my desktop since I travel ALOT and at 14" this seems amazing. How is this for video / picture editing? Will be doing quite a bit of multitasking and of course gaming (nothing too high end. Mass Effect 2, New Vegas, etc).

And quite importantly, how is the battery life?

I'll take the time to skim through quite a bit of this thread which may answer most of these questions already, but I'd figure I'd ask anyway.

thanks!

 

When did he order it? Amazon and J & R were just recently restocked this past weekend and people are wondering if those laptops have unannounced updated specs. Damn amazon is quick if he received it in 2 days.

 

I just picked up the 4820TG-7566 from Microcenter last Sunday. It has the i5-460M in it.

 

Alright everyone I confess I'm confused by the whole clean install, OEM activation, reinstall drivers process. Seems like some people had trouble with the eRecovery discs, activating Windows, etc.

Sorry to ask because I know it's been discussed many times, but can we get an updated step-by-step walkthrough of doing a clean install? Maybe in the first post?

 

Here is my guide. http://forum.notebookreview.com/6465732-post1612.html It is linked to the first page of the 3820 thread. You guys are welcome to link it to the first page of this thread.

Bronsky

 

Hello everyone, new member here. I've been lurking these forums for the past several weeks in search of the "perfect" laptop.

I've been looking at everything; XPS 14, Envy 14, Asus U43, Asus U30JC, Toshiba R705. For once in my life, I ultimately decided that the best option for me was also one of the "cheapest" options, a 4820TG-6805. Cost wasn't even the main factor, it just seemed that this machine had the best blend of performance and battery life.

Well, I just received it yesterday and have to say... very impressive machine. This is my first laptop in 15 years (I've been building desktop machines for the past 10 years) and I am thrilled so far. I do wish that it had bluetooth and a USB 3.0 port, but for $799, I'm not going to complain.

I spent a few hours last night removing all of the bloatware and making the system backup disks. I was expecting the worst with regard to the bloatware, but it wasn't too bad. At this point, I'm not going to bother with a clean install of Windows, I'd like to figure out the whole driver situation first before I tackle that. Laptop OS and driver installation seems to be a bit different than doing clean installs on a desktop.

Thanks to all the great folks on here, I've really learned a lot and I look forward to optimizing my new laptop and making some improvements over the next few months (Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid upgrade).

Btw, for those who are interested, it came with a i5 480M processor.

 

Does anyone have a list of bloatware we can remove?

 

sorry, i don't remember exactly what bloatware there was. I just went thru and uninstalled anything that looked like it was useless. Maybe a dozen programs or so?

 

So, weeks later, I finally got my laptop back from Acer repair! And guess what was included in the box, a nice little note from Acer saying "Your laptop passed our tests. It's a good unit." Yeah tell that to the many random bluescreens I got before sending it in.

So, in summary, 3ish weeks without my brand new 4820tg only to receive it back untouched. I haven't turned it on yet because the unit is ice cold from being in its box and I'm letting it warm up a bit in my house, but I fully expect more BSoD's. What a waste.

They also sent me a new charger for some reason, although I did not send mine back. However, it's 3.42A compared to the original 4.74A (that's the only difference), which I believe makes it unusable. Fairly dumb.

 

should be able to do all that no problem. Mine is completely stock, and i can get 6 hours of battery life on the IGP, wifi on, brightness 40%, etc.. Gaming, the battery only last 1.5 to 2, but that's expected.

Not sure about New Vegas, but I have Mass Effect 2 running completely maxed out, and get between 40-60 fps consistently. Even with the big explosions.

 

I have a watercooled desktop and apparently the pump died....

Good thing I have this laptop! I got it hooked up to my monitor mouse and keyboard and if it wasn't for the fact that it was so quiet I wouldn't even notice my desktop was out of commission.

I should have it fixed by tomorrow though

 

The 29th of November.

I did a fresh install and just phone activated windows. I couple times I didn't even have to use the phone activation. I've done it numerous times on other laptops without any issues. After I loaded windows, installed all the updates and drivers I made an image with windows 7 tool.

 

Cool, but you didn't say where you ordered it from?

 

Thanks for the Joke of the Day.
Another Epic "Why Acer Tech Fails" example...

 

Received mine from amazon today (ordered on Tues, 12/14). It's the 7805 model, but I haven't opened the actual laptop package within the amazon one, so I can't see the specs on the label. For those who have recently ordered 4820TGs, are the ones with the i5-480 and HD 6550 still the "7805" model?

I might sit on this for a couple weeks and wait out any other deals/announcements. I just have this very paranoid feeling that as soon as I open this thing, an Acer 4830TG with USB 3.0, high-res screen, 7200 rpm HDD, blu-ray ODD, Sandy Bridge, etc. will be announced.

 

Mine is the 7805 that has the 480 but it does not have a 6550, only a 5650.

 

I'm not an owner, but I'm interested in getting an Acer 4820TG. However it looks like all major retailers and etailers no longer carry them. Is there a reason for that?

 

It is available right here: Amazon.com: Acer Aspire TimelineX AS4820TG-7805 14-Inch Laptop (Black Brushed Aluminum): Computer & Accessories
But I'm watching this thread and researching daily before I buy it because I really want to get the new version with the ATI 6550 and i5 480M.